Recession still lingers in much of Ohio

As the rest of the nation celebrated in recent days that middle class income finally had recovered from the Great Recession, there was no cause to cheer in Ohio.

Recession after recession for generations, Ohio rebounded from hard times, but not anymore. Not only has the state failed to rebound from the Great Recession, we have yet to recover from the 2001 recession.

Consider:

Nearly two decades ago, Ohio median household income hit its peak and since then plunged as much as $10,000 during the Great Recession and remains $6,000 below the 2000 Census. That’s money out of household pockets for car repairs, health care emergencies, food and education.

The state is still short 152,000 jobs from its peak in 2000. That’s more jobs than there are people living in Dayton, Ohio’s sixth-largest city. The jobs decline occurred at the same time the nation’s largest generation, the millennials, came of age.

And, while the nation’s population grew 16 percent since the 2000 Census, Ohio edged up only 3 percent.

Old methods of revitalization haven’t reversed the decline. In the most recent year for which data is available, 2015, Ohio communities allowed businesses to forgo nearly a billion dollars in property taxes to stimulate growth, but at what cost? Those are taxes that businesses would otherwise have paid for fire and police protection, schools and drug addiction services.

That raises questions: Are there new ways to stop the decline in Ohio communities? Should success be redefined? Who should act?

More than 40 news organizations, including The Advocate, have joined in the Your Voice Ohio project to launch conversations across the state, asking Ohioans to define a vibrant community. What makes it tick, and how can each community move in the direction of vibrancy.

Today’s story begins to set the baseline for an ongoing search for solutions by exploring the amount of dollars flowing into households. Several news outlets contributed, with journalists setting aside competitive instincts to produce the data and obtain interviews from Ohioans.

Ideas first

Tiajuan Lewis, 68 and recently retired from the Area Agency on Aging in the Canton area, said that young people with options are leaving.

"It seems to me that the [communities] that are shrinking, it's because the parents get their kids a really good education and then when they get educated, they just leave," Lewis told the Canton Repository. "They give up on Ohio and just go somewhere else."

We could change that, she said, offering a solution also heard in 14 previous Your Voice Ohio sessions on the addiction crisis. "I would say in anybody's community the one thing that needs to be done is that people need to accept each other for who they are…," Lewis said. "And love each other. We breathe the same air.“

In Warren, a young businessman has another prescription.

Logan Reinard, 29, started a coffee shop in 2017 on the Trumbull County courthouse square. His county lost one of every three jobs since 1997 peak employment.

Reinard said people, especially younger people, don't want to move into areas that aren't surrounded by amenities they want.

Areas that have a "mindset of excellence" tend to succeed, he said.

Living with lower income

Former Akron Beacon Journal investigative journalist and data specialist David Knox, now working independently, compared historic household income data with new 2017 numbers released Thursday.

He found that one more year offered little relief. Of the 39 counties for which data is available, 41 percent, or 16 of them, declined last year. Among those were many of Ohio’s major urban counties, Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Stark (Canton), Montgomery, Butler and Clark counties (Dayton area), and Trumbull and Mahoning (Youngstown-Warren area).

The measure to which Ohio has fallen is immense. Ohioans lived well at one time, with median household income 9 percent above the national rate in the 1970 Census.

After the 2001 recession, household income imploded, so that by 2017, Ohio is now 10.5 percent below the national rate. Moreover, the U.S.-Ohio gap widened from 2016 to 10.5 percent and may be the widest in a half century.

More than $6,000 out of pockets year after year has taken a toll.

Household income numbers are available only for counties with population of more than 65,000. Of those, only four have household income higher than 2000 Census numbers, collected in 1999. They are:

Delaware, north of Columbus, where suburban sprawl by some of Columbus’ wealthiest has driven the numbers. Median household income is up 8 percent from 1999 and highest among the reporting counties.

Athens, in rural Appalachia, is the home of Ohio University. Near the bottom in income, but up about 10 percent.

Scioto, on the Ohio River near the southern tip. It has had the lowest household income in the state for multiple years, but is up 5 percent.

Belmont is in the heart of southeastern Ohio Appalachian country and enjoys new wealth due to natural gas exploration. Income soared the most: 24 percent.

Adjusted for inflation, median household income in Licking County fell by 3.4 percent from 1999 to 2017. This was the seventh best rate in the counties measured in Ohio.

There will be community meetings in which journalists will sit with area residents to gain a better understanding of how lives have changed and the solutions needed.

The first round of meetings begins Sept. 23 in Southwest Ohio and will end in Northeast Ohio the following week. To join, go to the Your Voice Ohio web site to find a location near you and register. More will occur after the election.

Doug Oplinger is the retired managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal and now leads the Your Voice Ohio media participants. He can be emailed at doplinger@yourvoiceohio.org Contributing to this story were David Knox; the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which paid for Knox’s data work; The Repository in Canton; and the Warren Tribune Chronicle.

Community meetings

Two-hour conversations on how to fix Ohio’s ailing communities will occur across the state, with the first round beginning Sept. 23. For meeting information or to register, go to the Your Voice Ohio web site.